Cuts are expected to hit Yahoo's media business, European operations and platforms-technology harder than the rest of the company.

Yahoo has declined to comment on the layoffs, but it has acknowledged changes are taking place.

Yahoo said that its board will now look at alternatives to separate the Alibaba stake, focusing specifically on a reverse spin off. The company said in the reverse spin off, Yahoo assets and liabilities other than the Alibaba stake would be transferred to a newly formed company. The end result would be two separate, publicly traded companies.